The Best Theory of Cosmic Structure Formation is Cold + Hot Dark Matter (CHDM)

Abstract

I have been asked to make the case here that CHDM is the best theory of cosmic structure formation, and indeed I believe that it is the best of all those I have considered if the cosmological matter density is near critical and if the expansion rate is not too large (i.e. $h \equiv H_0/(100 \kmsMpc) \lsim 0.6$). I discuss CHDM together with its chief competitor among CDM variants, low-$Ω_0$ CDM with a cosmological constant ($Λ$CDM). $Λ$CDM with $Ω_0 \sim 0.3$ has the possible virtue of allowing a higher expansion rate H_0 for a given cosmic age t_0, but the defect of predicting too much fluctuation power on small scales. Also, except for the $H_0-t_0$ problem, there is not a shred of evidence in favor of a nonzero cosmological constant, only increasingly stringent observational upper bounds on it. CHDM has less power on small scales, in good agreement with data, although it remains to be seen whether it predicts early enough galaxy formation to be compatible with the latest high-redshift data. I also briefly compare CHDM to other CDM variants such as Warm Dark Matter (WDM) and tilted CDM. CHDM has the advantage among $Ω=1$ CDM-type models of requiring little or no tilt, which appears to be an advantage in fitting recent small-angle CMB anisotropy data. The presence of a hot component that clusters less than cold dark matter lowers the effective $Ω_0$ that would be measured on small scales, which appears to be in accord with observations, and it may also avoid the discrepancy between the high central density of dark matter halos from CDM simulations compared to evidence from rotation curves of dwarf spiral galaxies.

20 pages, includes 2 figures, to be published in proceedings of the Princeton 250th Anniversary conference, June 1996, Critical Dialogues in Cosmology, ed. N. Turok (World Scientific). Revised version fixes typos on p.9: 1.25-->0.23, warm+cold-->warm+hot